Better Business Bureau: January 2009 Archives

Automatic TLC heating oil and Aiello plumbing are two unrelated Connecticut companies that have a lot in common.

Both are under state investigation as the result of scores of customer complaints of improper and unethical behavior.

Both have several complaints filed against them with the Better Business Bureau.

Both are dues-paying members of the bureau.

And both have A ratings: Aiello, of Windsor Locks, has an A+ rating (the highest possible), while Automatic, of East Hartford, has an A- rating (until Monday it had an A+).

I initially thought that these two ratings were flukes. Even though I consider myself a sckeptical reporter, it did not cross my mind that their memberships and annual fees to the BBB could have had anything to do with their ratings.

But as some other consumer columnists also recently discovered, the bureaus' new rating system, which were adopted by all the offices Jan. 6, now shows their bias toward those companies that pay it dues. Those annual fees range from hundreds of dollars to thousands, depending on the size of the company, and are the nonprofit company's major source of funding.

Better Business Bureau (BBB) announced it is launching improved versions of its BBB Reliability Reports™, which include a more detailed A+ through F letter-grade replacing the previous ratings scale of "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory"

BBB provides reports on more than four million businesses, all online and free of charge at www.bbb.org. New letter-grades are prominently displayed on business reports to help consumers more easily and quickly identify and compare the reliability of businesses.

"Consumers want more than marketing spin or a few comments about a business posted on the Internet, and rightly so, because given tough economic conditions, they literally can't afford to make bad buying decisions," said Steve Cox, BBB spokesperson. "BBB's improved reports provide detailed insight into a business's track record and are based on our time-tested standards, in-depth research and the millions of consumer complaints filed with BBB."

Since starting the Watchdog column two years ago I have been touting the Better Business Bureau as an excellent tool (a tool, NOT THE ONLY TOOL) for consumer.

But unfortunately the more I study how the bureau handles complaints the less faith I have in the organization.

The latest nail in the coffin comes from the consumer columnist for our sister paper - Los Angeles Times - which makes a compelling case that the bureau is giving easier grades to members who pay yearly fees than to non-members (the total column is at the end of my blog).

My first serious doubts began developing last year when the Connecticut BBB put out a press release slamming a sport ticket agency operating in Connecticut. When the company complained, the BBB quickly threw up the white flag, took the press release off its web site, but said it stood by what it said in the release.

I told BBB officials to stop sending me press releases that they refuse to fully back. Their response was to threaten to stop sending me all releases. Fine by me, I told them.

Then I started to notice that companies could outsmart the BBB by responding in any fashion to a consumer complaint. The BBB would then report that the company responded, but the customer refused to accept the offer - even if the offer simply said the company would talk to the customer, sort of putting the blame on the consumer for the unsatisfactory outcome.

I will still tell people to report issues to the BBB, but until the bureau has an independent investigation of how it responds to complaints and how it rates companies, consumers should be real leery.

Better Business Bureau grades companies on a peculiar curvePaying the BBB to be listed as an accredited business appears to have instant benefits in the agency's ratings.By David Lazarus

With the help of hundreds of readers we have won many victories for consumers in Connecticut and sometimes nationally over the past 20 months through the Watchdog columns. Through the blog I will be able to post your reaction to columns, get advice from you ... read more